


The Sea Glows Violet

by OfStrangeShadows



Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Background Relationships, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, First Meetings, M/M, Mermaid!Rhys, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other additional characters to be added, Pirate!Jack, Pirates, Slow Burn, Timhelm is the planned background relationship, mermaid au, rated for later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-09 06:29:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7790278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OfStrangeShadows/pseuds/OfStrangeShadows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Never swim to the shadow-casting creatures," Rhys had been warned by elders with more dyed skin than not, aged hands clasping his like the pressure could keep his curiosity away. "Those who do never come back." Thinking back to those words now - a tattooed hand coming up to rub at the point where his arm and shoulder used to meet, eyes focused on the vast expanse of his home through the small cabin window - he can’t help but wonder if those elders knew more than they had ever let on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sea Glows Violet

_Never swim to the shadow-casting creatures_ , Rhys had been warned as a pup by Elders with more dyed skin than not, aged hands clasping his like the pressure could keep his curiosity away. _Those who do never come back._ Their words pounded against his mind every time those gigantic bodies would appear miles above his head, every time he would cast his remaining eye on one of those same Elders, but the fear they tried to inspire never seemed to come to him. It never settled heavy in his stomach, never swept up his thoughts like the current would sweep up unsuspecting fish. But the newborn pups, with their wide eyes trained on the space where his arm used to be, didn’t share that lack of fear. To them, the shadows that came sweeping in were more terrifying than the _real_ and _tangible_ threats that would swim and wait just beyond the coral-gathering where they played.  
   
Rhys watched from where he lay on a rock that jutted over Vaughn’s collection area, thinking of those same words and swishing his dark tail around idly, head resting in the palm of his remaining hand, as all the newborn members of his pod rushed over to him and Vaughn when that darkness appeared once again. Their high-pitched voices screamed in his head, begging to let them hide beneath his rock, and Vaughn grimaced as the same voices went wild in his mind as well. He could hear the smallest whisper of Vaughn’s voice tickling his mind, complaining in a whiny tone about the way the pups couldn’t seem to learn that the shadows were mostly harmless. They certainly couldn’t hear him, their little minds still untrained to the smaller things that could travel through the wave that connected them all, but Rhys still couldn’t help the smile that lifted his lips. Vaughn looked up at him from where he was crouched over coral, hands filled with oysters, and rolled his eyes with an exasperated smile of his own. One day the pups would learn to not fear the shadows, but that day was not today. Rhys looked to where they were all huddled together not a few meters away, fidgeting and shooting uneasy glances to the steadily advancing shadow, and motioned with his hand for them to hide like they wanted to.  
   
“You think they’ll ever figure out that they’re whales?” Vaughn’s voice asked, tugging at Rhys’ mind for attention as the pups bumped and shoved at each other to fit completely beneath the jut of the rock. The connection between he and Vaughn rang with secrecy, and he only replied after leaning over the edge of the rock to swat at two of the pups to keep them from hurting one another.  
   
“Whales don’t take off limbs,” he said, motioning to the bump that used to be the start of his right arm. The shadow swept overhead at that moment, and the fearful screams of the little ones beneath him were cacophonous. He looked up, even thought to start swimming toward the creature just to scare the pups, but took in its dark underside and how quickly it was moving and decided otherwise. He’d have to do it some other day, when the creature was moving slower and the pups were a bit braver.  
   
Their voices died down as it and its shadow disappeared from their view. Rhys finally turned back to Vaughn when the little ones were content with how far away it was, playfully daring one another to take the first move out from beneath the rock. Vaughn let the pups move past him when they finally darted out from the safety of the rock, holding an oyster tightly in his hand to keep it from flying away with the momentum of their tails.  
   
“They follow a specific pattern,” he supplied, cracking open the oyster to hold it up to his face to look for pearls. “Like migrating whales. It makes perfect sense.”  
   
He shrugged, trying not to frown as Vaughn shut the oyster and looked up at him. His lips betrayed him, turning down childishly as he brought his arm up to grip at his shoulder. He didn’t look as Vaughn swam up to him, moving to rest on his back and unfurling his dark brown tail once he was comfortable there, and only turned back toward him when their connection rang with his voice again. “Listen, bro,” he started, oyster still in hand as he stared upward. “I know you don’t believe my whale theory. I know you want real answers. But…”  
   
Vaughn paused, finally turning his head. His eyes darted from the frown on Rhys’ face to the spot where his arm used to be, taking in the way his skin puckered at the end of his shoulder bone. From there, his gaze went to the tattoos covering his left side, following the turquoise swirls up his arm and torso and ending at the tip of the curl furling around his lost eye. He stared there for a long moment before being brought back to the frown on his lips again. He shook his head, blinking slowly and turning away to look upward once more. “You know the Elders won’t let you go. It’s dangerous.”  
   
Rhys nodded, letting his arm fall. The Elders had been particularly hard on him since the incident and, though it had some positives like his lack of having to collect oysters, he couldn’t find a way to convince them to let him _do_ things again. It came from a place of worry, he knew, but he wished they would just see that he could do the normal, everyday things the rest of his podmembers did too. This could prove it. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that actually,” he replied, using the momentum of his swishing tail to flip himself onto his back. “So the creatures have a pattern, right? And you know it?”  
   
Vaughn tensed beside him, turning his head back toward Rhys slowly. He watched in silence as realization blossomed on Vaughn’s face – the light, swirling tattoos surrounding his eyes seeming to lift as his eyes widened. He stared at Rhys in silence for a long moment before angrily replying, “No! No, I won’t help you with trying to get to those things!”  
   
“C’mon, think about it,” he tried to reason, lifting his torso to look down at Vaughn. “With your smarts, I’ll know when they’re coming! I can’t get hurt by something I’m expecting.”  
   
Vaughn stayed quiet and crossed his arms as his eyebrows knit together, lips pursed. Well, Rhys supposed that the silence was a good sign. It meant he’d at least listen before objecting. “Besides, I’m already down one arm and one eye. There’s not much else they can do even if I _do_ get hurt.”  
   
Vaughn frowned at that, small fluke flicking against the smooth surface of the rock, and Rhys could practically _hear_ how much he disapproved. He had never been fond of the idea of Rhys being hurt, but after the incident with his arm, Vaughn went out of his way to keep Rhys safe. Even mild things, like getting the webbing between his fingers stuck between two rocks, greatly disturbed him. It reminded Rhys a lot of how the Elders treated him, but Vaughn’s worry came from a different place and Rhys never faulted him for that.  
   
Vaughn lifted himself then, the hand not holding the oyster coming up to cup the side of Rhys’ face. His thumb rested just beneath the eye he had lost years ago, replaced by a large pearl that Vaughn had found for him. He seemed to stare at it for a moment – the digit beneath it moving gently against Rhys’ cheek, over the swirls of the tattoos that ended just beneath his eye – and Rhys could practically see all of the effort he had gone through to find it swimming within his eyes. It had taken months, Vaughn told him when he gave him the pearl, but he thought every agonizing hour of searching through oysters had been worth it. Rhys did too.  
   
Suddenly, their connection rang with Vaughn’s voice again as he snapped his gaze away from the socket and leveled Rhys with a pointed look, eyes too soft to be a glare. “If you’re going, I’m going with you.”  
   
He went to protest, to tell Vaughn that it was far too dangerous for him to go, but cut that thought off immediately. If it was too dangerous for Vaughn to go, Vaughn would retort back that it was too dangerous for _him_ to go, and there was no way he was going to swim into that conversation. Besides, three eyes were always better than one.  
   
“Fine,” he clipped, resisting the urge to lean into Vaughn’s hand. Curse him and his comforting thumb movements. “But you have to be the one to get Yvette to cover for us. I still owe her four two-tentacle from last time.”  
   
“Still?” Vaughn laughed through their connection, the mirthful sound ringing in his brain, and his hand fell away from Rhys’ face. He pushed off the rock, dropping the oyster in the half-way full stone bowl between them, and swam down to his collection area. “It’s been years, bro.”  
   
“I haven’t been able to catch one since!” Rhys defended, deciding not to mention that it was because it was hard to catch two-tentacles with only one arm. Vaughn would give him that pained, guilty look if he did. Instead, he calmly flipped himself back over to rest on his front, staring down at Vaughn from his vantage point. “C’mon, you have to do it. Maybe she’ll forget about my two-tentacles.”  
   
Vaughn opened their connection then, dropping the wall of secrecy that kept the pups and any other podmembers around from hearing what they needed to say to one another. He chuckled again, looking up at Rhys and rolling his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s get back to work. Whenever we’re done, we can go to Yvette.”

* * *

To Rhys’ amazement, Yvette actually had a good amount of oysters in her collection bowl when he and Vaughn finally finished working and made their way over to her. It wasn't that Yvette couldn't collect lots of oysters, it was just that she had a wandering hand when collecting and often ate a good portion of what she gathered. Rhys thought it was part of her charm, but other podmembers disagreed. To them, her little quirks were unfitting for the type of beauty she possessed, and she was certainly beautiful. The entirety of his pod recognized the pleasing shape of her face and the patterns of her dark tattoos, though no one ever acted on it. He knew that part of it was because of his and Vaughn’s friendship with her, as he had heard from many of his fellow podmembers that they assumed the three would become romantically involved, but Rhys knew that the bigger part was her nature.  
   
Besides sneaking oysters, she was conniving when it came to going to meet with other pods at market to sell the pearls they collected. There had been so many incidents where she blatantly duped a trader that she wasn’t allowed to front for their pod anymore – a duty which they all had to partake in whenever it came to their turn – and any potential mates from outside pods found that off-putting. Regardless, his pod and others continued to admire her bright tail and tight braids and hope for a change in her ways. Rhys knew that _that_ hope was a futile one, but he guessed that he wouldn’t dash their dreams by telling them.  
   
Yvette turned as he and Vaughn got closer, and Rhys could see that she had the shell of an oyster balanced between her teeth and two more in both hands.  
   
“Hello, boys,” she greeted, the connection between the three of them ringing with her voice. Vaughn smiled beside him, swimming forward to place their bowl down next to hers and help her with the oysters in her hands. She gratefully gave them to him, taking the one from her mouth and cracking it open. “You two finished early today. In a rush?”  
   
She sucked the contents of the oyster into her mouth once she was sure that it didn’t have a pearl inside, swallowing with a smile as Vaughn replied to her, “Somewhat. We actually need to talk with you.”  
   
“If this is about taking the pups off your hands during collection this week, I’m telling you no right now.” Her orange tail flicked forward, wispy fluke hitting Vaughn’s arm as she grinned at him. He smiled in return, swimming a bit closer to hit her with his own shorter tail in retaliation.  
   
“It’s not about that,” Rhys cut in, wishing it _was_. The pups, no matter how much he loved them all, were annoying and oblivious to danger and took away from his relaxation time with Vaughn. He swam closer to the two of them, regretting saying anything as the smile on Vaughn’s face dropped. “It’s actually something more serious.”  
   
“Oh?” Yvette’s brow raised, her side of the connection suddenly closing their conversation entirely. They stayed in silence for a moment, Yvette looking at them both curiously and waiting for either of them to say something before shrugging her shoulders and reaching for another oyster. She inspected its contents before sucking them up, finally asking, “So what’s this about?”  
   
Vaughn looked to him, motioning toward Yvette with an expectant look. She turned from him to Rhys, and he decided to just go for it. It’d make him look unsure if he didn’t just say it, wouldn’t it? “I want to find out what the shadow-casters are.”  
   
He expected surprise from her. If not that, maybe a blink or flinch or _something_ , but she just kept on sucking away at the oyster, only replying when she lowered the shell and stared at him again. “So? We’ve known this. You’ve been dying to ever since you lost your arm.”  
   
“Well, yeah,” he started, looking to Vaughn. Vaughn reached up to fidget with the kelp tied around his throat, knotted in the shape that he liked to call a bow, and looked away from Rhys. “But Vaughn knows their patterns, so it’ll be easy for me to get up there and back without having to wait for long.”  
   
Yvette’s lips pursed, head tilting to the side. She gave him a knowing look, the dark blue tattoos around her eyes highlighting it and making him want to flinch. “So you want me to cover for you, huh?”  
   
“Not just me…”  
   
At that, her eyes widened and she looked over to Vaughn. He gave her a sheepish smile, nodding. “I should have guessed,” she began, a grin growing. “You two can’t be separated. It was your idea to go with him, wasn’t it?”  
   
“Guilty as charged.” Vaughn replied, turning to look at Rhys. He didn't smile, but there was something behind his eyes that reminded Rhys of the times they had pulled pranks on other podmembers; something too akin to joy that it made his stomach twist. He almost wanted to take back everything, tell them both to forget about what he wanted to do with the shadow-casters, but the curiosity kept chipping at him. He _couldn’t_ keep waiting to figure out what took his arm. He _couldn’t_ live his whole life without finding out what the shadow-casters were.  
   
“So you want me to cover for _both_ of you while you go out and risk your lives?” Yvette asked, folding her arms over her chest, grin falling into a smirk. Vaughn nodded beside him with a grimace, the complete opposite of Yvette’s amused look. She lifted a hand to tap at her chin, looking up before looking back at them with an exaggerated show of figuring out whatever it was she had been thinking over. “Okay, I’ll do it--”  
   
“Great! That’s great! Thank yo--”  
   
She raised a finger, effectively hushing him. “But I want ten two-tentacle on top of the four you _still_ owe me and one of those turquoise necklaces from that one pod that comes to market every few months.”  
   
“ _Seriously!?_ That’s fourteen two-tentacle, there’s no way you need tha--”  
   
“Fourteen two-tentacle and a necklace or no deal.”  
   
He looked to Vaughn, matching the grimace he wore with his own. Did she drive a hard bargain to protect them, or was she being difficult just because she knew they’d get the stuff for her? It was probably the latter, though he knew somewhere, deep in the recesses of her heart, it was the former. She dropped her hand back down to her chest, smirking with her head cocked.  
   
“Fine.” Vaughn finally clipped, sticking out his fluke disgruntledly. Yvette wrapped her own around his happily, looking to Rhys to do the same with a wide grin and giddy eyes. He did as she wanted with a deep frown, wrapping his long tail around their flukes and forcing one heavy shake before detaching. Fourteen two-tentacle. Was this really worth having to catch _fourteen_ two-tentacle?  
   
“Alright, so keep everyone from thinking you’re gone while you go on your adventure?” The picture of her with her new necklace, surrounded by two-tentacles to eat, was plain behind her eyes and Rhys sort of wished he had tried to get her to come with them instead of needing someone to watch out to make sure no one knew of their absence. He nodded as Vaughn did, and Yvette turned back toward her collection area. “Can do. When do you two plan to leave?”  
   
Her head disappeared into the coral as she searched and Vaughn swam to join her, going down to dig through the multicolored coral in the same fashion as her as he replied, “One passed over today, so my calculations would put another one following it within three light-times.”  
   
“Alright then,” she said, something mirthful behind her voice as she moved her head up to look back at Rhys. “In three light-times, you’ll have the answer to the question we all ask. None of us can wait.”  
For some unexplainable reason, he doubted that.

* * *

Two light-times passed in the same way they always did – with collecting oysters that had pearls and scolding pups being the only really exciting things of Rhys’ day – and much too fast for Vaughn’s liking, if his complaints were anything to go by. Rhys woke up the third light-time as dim light filtered in from above, and almost as if he had never been sleeping in the first place – eyes snapping open and tail swishing idly with thrumming energy. He moved quietly passed the sleeping areas of his podmembers, avoiding having to swim by any of the Elders in fear they’d somehow know what he planned and wake up in anger as he passed them, and made it to Vaughn’s area without any trouble. Vaughn was curled up near Yvette, sandy hair caressing her face with every small push of the current, and Rhys made sure to avoid her as he rounded Vaughn. Her face contorted for a moment as the rush from his tail moved over her, but she didn’t wake.  
   
He gently nudged at Vaughn, laughing to himself as his cloudy mind came to – images of distorted fish and talking oysters fading as consciousness came. He blinked hard, trying to bring Rhys into focus, and clumsily responded to the way Rhys pulled at their connection, “Huh, wha?”  
   
“C’mon, let’s get going. We don’t want to sneak off when everyone is waking up,” he explained slowly, gently pulling at Vaughn to get him to uncurl. He did so sluggishly, blinking up at Rhys in confusion before his brain seemed to finally catch up to the situation. He nodded, blinking hard a few more times, before urging Rhys to move with a lethargic wave of his hand. He did so as gently as he could, watching Vaughn carefully as he flicked his short tail and stretched his arms. Yvette’s face contorted again as the small rush from Vaughn’s tail pushed at her, and Rhys’ heart nearly stopped as her eyes scrunched and lips pouted.  
   
“Vaughn, Vaughn, you gotta stop. You’re gonna wake Yvette up,” he warned, forcing himself to calmly swim back to Vaughn and place a stern hand on the base of his tail. Vaughn looked to him in confusion, going from his face to the hand on his tail, before turning to look at Yvette. He stared for a long moment before nodding and softly pushing at Rhys to move, tugging at their connection with the practiced ease that Rhys was used to.  
   
“That...would definitely not be good.”  
   
“You could say that again. Now, c’mon, we’ll miss them if we don’t go.”  
   
Vaughn turned back to him then, nodding once more before moving as gently as he could. Rhys followed his example, removing his hand and carefully watching Yvette’s face as they swam away from her. She didn’t stir, but he made sure to keep a close eye on any other podmembers that they passed by just in case they weren’t as heavy of sleepers. Vaughn paled as they passed the Elders, swimming just a few inches closer to grip Rhys’ arm tightly, but didn’t comment in that hushed, panicked way of his like Rhys thought he would. Instead, he took only one look at the Elders before grabbing at Rhys and keeping his gaze straight ahead.  
   
Vaughn stayed silent the entire time they maneuvered around podmembers and rocks, preferring to squeeze Rhys’ arm gently if he were about to unknowingly hit something to his right. It worked well, but he wished Vaughn would say _something_. His skin crawled at the idea of Vaughn never speaking to him again because of this, and he thought to turn around when a hard tug on his remaining arm stopped him entirely.  
   
“Rhys, are you really sure about this?” Vaughn asked. “Because I had this dream and I’m not really—”  
   
Oh, so that’s what the silence was about. He tugged his arm away with a gentle look, wishing he still had his other one so he could lay a calming hand on Vaughn’s shoulder. “Vaughn, we’ve talked about this. Dreams don’t mean—”  
   
“Don’t.”  
   
“Vaughn—”  
   
“I’m serious, Rhys. If you don’t want to believe me, fine, but don’t tell me that they don’t mean anything. Remember the first time—”  
   
“I know, but that was just…” He trailed off, looking up to where the shadow-casters swam. The vacancy of the vastness above them was a comfort, but the implication of Vaughn having another dream, especially when it related to the shadow-casters, chilled him to his core. Still, he shook his head and looked back to Vaughn. “Coincidence. It was just a coincidence.”  
   
Vaughn gave him a pointed look, swirling tattoos seeming to punctuate the disbelief and hidden anger within his eyes, but didn’t say anything. Instead, he tilted his head to look up to where Rhys had been staring. With a nod, he looked to Rhys again and motioned for them to start swimming with a clipped, “They’ll be coming soon.”  
   
Rhys followed Vaughn’s lead in silence, eyeing his light brown fluke and wondering how he could apologize to the other without making Vaughn think he’d be willing to skip out on finally finding out what the shadow-casters were. Any apology he could come up with wasn’t satisfactory, and the disorienting angle of swimming upward was making it hard to think of anything better. Vaughn never once looked back to him either, so he couldn’t try to start up a conversation and just go from there. Rhys ran straight into him when he finally stopped - too preoccupied with his own thoughts to pay any attention. The other was staring up at where the shadow-casters swam, and Rhys followed his gaze to take in the opaque break of it. It was almost like a solid line, and it looked as if it dipped in and crashed upon itself. He had never seen anything like it.  
   
“It’s so weird,” Vaughn finally spoke, turning to look at Rhys with knitted eyebrows and a pursed lip. “Why does it look like that?”  
   
“Maybe they need a special current to swim?” Rhys supplied. Vaughn hummed halfheartedly in reply, nodding and swimming off to the right of Rhys. He didn’t blame him; the reasoning sounded weak even to himself.  
   
“You go to the left,” Vaughn said after a moment, not even looking over his shoulder to see how Rhys would react. “We’ll be able to see better if we’re not right on each other.”  
   
“But—” Rhys started, arm coming up to motion at his face. Vaughn didn’t look over his shoulder at that either, and Rhys’ complaints died midway through their connection. Okay. Left it was then.  
   
Everything seemed to be colder, thicker, without Vaughn right there next to him. It was silly, he knew, to even entertain the sensations; there wasn’t anything different about the area just a few tail-lengths away from Vaughn, but he just couldn’t seem to shake the unease that had settled so quickly in his core. It grew as Vaughn continued to look off to the right, keeping his gaze far from Rhys. Again, apologizes sprang unbidden to him, but none could seem to push past the careful filter he had put in front of them. They were more like beggings of forgiveness than actual apologizes, and even _he_ cringed at some that tried to break free from his throat  
   
But Vaughn probably wouldn’t care. Maybe he’d even find it endearing. Perhaps letting out some of the apologizes wouldn’t be as bad as he thought it would be. With an exasperated eye roll aimed at himself and the overzealous apologizes that sprang to mind, he tugged gently on Vaughn’s side of the connection. Vaughn turned slowly after a long, drawn out moment, but didn’t try to stop Rhys with a clipped, dismissive sentence.  
   
“Vaughn—” Rhys began, eyes shutting as he brought his hand up to rub at the bridge of his nose. This would be a harder apology than any other, he already knew. Hopefully Vaughn would listen without objection.  
   
“Rhys,” Vaughn’s voice was surprisingly loud in his head, cutting him off, and a spike of anger stabbed him hot through the chest, brows furrowing. There was no need for Vaughn to be so stubborn! He knew Rhys didn’t fully believe him about the dream stuff; this was just unfair of him!  
   
“No, Vaughn, just listen for a sec—”  
   
“Rhys! RHYS!” Vaughn’s voice was cacophonous in his head, and his eyes finally snapped open, infuriated words just at the edge of their connection, begging to be pushed through. They fizzled there as Rhys took in the pointed finger Vaughn had outstretched, skin paled like Rhys had only ever seen once before, and he turned to see what was wrong just as something engulfed him entirely; Vaughn only barely swimming down in time to avoid being swallowed as well.  
   
It felt like nothing he had ever touched before – thick and sturdy as it dug into his tail and skin, but woven with some sort of material that scratched him as he lashed around, trying to get out. Vaughn’s eyes were wide, wild, from where he could see them through large openings in whatever it was that held him captive, his hands frantically trying to grab onto one of the openings, but he seemed to fall farther and farther away with every second that passed. “Rhys! Rhys! Hold on! Don’t! Don’t—”  
   
Even as he fell farther and farther behind, fading away into the murky distance, he still called out to him – still desperately tried to claw at the thing that he could no longer reach. Their connection thinned with every tail-length that passed between them before it finally snapped, Rhys’ name cut short from Vaughn’s end. Something final settled heavy in his gut, eyes wide as he desperately tried to make out Vaughn’s form – his stunted tail, short fluke, defined arms and stomach, _anything_ – but he never could, fingers curled too tight around the scratchy openings in whatever had abducted him as he finally tore his gaze away from the vastness just beyond the openings.  
   
This was it, wasn’t it? Trapped in some weird _thing_ that Rhys couldn’t tell would eat him or just drag him along until he finally died? He never got to apologize to Vaughn. He never got to repay him for the pearl. He never got to give Yvette her two-tentacles and see the joyous look on her face when he presented a hard-won necklace to her. He never even got to find out what the shadow-casters were.  
   
The shadow-casters...  
   
Frigid realization crawled up his spine, curling around his mind and squeezing tight as the word rang in his brain. Was this _thing_ that held him...was it part of those imposing figures that he so desperately wanted to know? _It would make sense_ , he hesitantly decided, trying desperately to ignore how everything suddenly jostled and he was forced around. They were so large; they must have to eat creatures that were a bit bigger than average to sustain themselves, and, though he was loath to admit it, he _was_ rather big – certainly larger than most creature, including others of his kind. It wasn’t _his_ fault that he tail was so long! How was it fair that he would end up being eaten just because he was born with a longer tail?  
   
But one thing gave him pause as he wrapped his hand around the connector between openings. Why would their mouths have such large holes? To ensure larger prey? The thought pricked at his skin and he shuddered, shutting his eyes tight. _I guess I’ll find out soon_ , he thought with a gulp, suddenly feeling the current trying to push him down as the shadow-caster started to pull whatever held him – its mouth, its hand, _whatever_ it was – up.  
   
He didn’t think to do it, but his tail twisted and fought, pushing between openings and wiggling around to try and force them wider. He followed its example as he was forced closer and closer to that bizarre break that Vaughn had pointed out, clawing and pulling at the thing holding him. It was unrelenting, strong, and dug back into his hands and the webbing between his fingers in an angry display of defense, as if it were Rhys attacking _it_ without reason and not the other way around. Its texture toughened and bit at Rhys with every pull from him, with every length it travelled upward, and he finally gave up as the break that the shadow-casters swam in threatened to swallow him whole mere nail-lengths away from his head.  
   
Everything he had expected – pain, pressure, maybe nothing at all – disappeared as his head and then torso and tail went through the shadow-caster’s current. For a moment, he felt fine, though a bit shaken and weightless. Then he was assaulted; a loud crashing breaking into his ears, the feeling of boulders upon boulders being stacked upon him, shoving his face and body down into the roughness of the thing holding him - rougher now than before, pressing red hot marks into his face. The pressure pushed every last bit of his life essence from him, sucking it out like he was one of Yvette’s oysters and it Yvette. His eyes shut tight and he desperately, futilely, searched for Vaughn’s connection, coming up empty as the pressure increased and increased.  
   
Something burst within him, rushing out the last of the life essence that he had somehow kept. Whatever it was then forced its way back into him through his mouth and a ragged, _dying_ sound filled his ears. It dragged on for so long, scratched the inner sides of his mouth for what felt like forever, before calming down as the pressure lessened and Rhys was set down onto something hard and solid. It was like a rock but slightly softer, sticking up in places and digging into his hands. His textured captor fell away, though it stayed beneath him and he sunk his nails into it when it started to move again.  
   
His eyes snapped open when words he somewhat recognized, so warbled and guttural that he almost didn’t, met his ears. His hair obscured his vision for a moment before he pushed it away, and it felt different than normal; slick like eggs and with that same pressure from before just less in intensity. He pushed away the want to examine, to figure out what was going on, in favor of finding out _what_ had said those words, even distorted as they were.  
   
Four figures were before him, staring at him with wide eyes and varying expressions. They each had two tails, one tail seeming to split just beneath their torsos to create the two. Their split tails ended in oddly shaped flukes, too solid and nothing like the wispy flukes Rhys was used to, that bent at a bizarre, uncomfortable angle from their tails. They were thicker than any of his kind that he had seen before - bodies baggy in odd places and toned in others. All of their chests were colors he had never seen skin be, but their arms and heads were normal. The one closest to him, standing before the rest with his tails spread apart wide and something dark in his hand, had the most ornate torso of them all - shoulders broad and flowing down his back, ending in pointed tips near his flukes. His chest was a mix of yellows and browns, white and black, and was stark against his tanned arms and throat. The skin beneath the yellow seemed to almost be tucked into the combined base of his tails. _How bizarre_ , Rhys found himself thinking, blinking hard.  
   
Something in the figure sang though, pulling and pushing at Rhys like the current in tumultuous times, and he warily eyed the blue scar curving into the stranger’s face. It seemed to glow; soft light blurring the eye not covered by _whatever_ that thing resting on his other eye was. Maybe these creatures were closer to him than he thought? But none of the rest of them staring at him with blank looks sang like the one before him did.  
   
Not even the one that looked so similar to him. Rhys recognized them as soul-duos, but the other one didn’t have that same _aura_ , that same call that the one pointing the dark thing at him did. His face was unmarred, strong but unsure as he stared at Rhys. His own posture was unlike his soul-duo’s. Where the other was assured, threatening, this one was more timid – head tilted downward in the slightest way and legs tight together. He wouldn’t call it a frightened stance, however. The soul-duo stared back at him with a clenched jaw and strong, mismatched eyes, daring him to act.  
   
The figure next to him was firmer in his look, and larger than any of Rhys’ kind he had ever seen before. He towered over the rest of the figures by Vaughn’s tail-length at the least, maybe even Yvette’s, and was the width of the soul-duos combined. He reminded him of the razor-teeths that sometimes took the lives and limbs of his podmembers – gaze just as sharp and _hungry_ and body just as big. He too was scarred and had something over one of his eyes, though it was much less showy and shiny than the other figure’s. Unlike the others’ dark hair, his was straight silver. Was he the Elder of them all then? If he was the leader, then why was the other one placed before them all?  
   
He didn’t dwell much on it as the other figure next to him moved, placing a hand on his shoulder with a sharp grin. Maybe he had been wrong. _This_ figure, with her glinting teeth and piercing gaze, seemed more like the razor-teeths than the large one did. She wasn’t much smaller in stature than the soul-duos, though Rhys attributed that to the clunky, square thing that came out of the base of her fluke and gave her height. Without it, he imagined she would be a bit shorter than the rest, but it didn’t matter. She radiated violence despite her size and stared him down without hesitation - almost as if she had been waiting for the day to come where she would lay eye on him. It sent terrible curls of dark fear down his spine and squeezed his heart. _I’m going to die._  
   
The one with the scar made a low sound, seeking Rhys’ attention and getting it easily. Rhys stared, wide eyed, at the black, shiny thing that the figure now had pointed between his eyes. What was that? Was he supposed to be scared of it? He already _was_ , so, some part of his hindbrain supplied, it didn’t really matter if it wasn’t _supposed_ to be frightening. The figure’s mouth lifted into a sharp grin and he made another sound, this time opening his mouth to do it. Rhys realized it was a name as the shortest of them all stepped forward, her smile growing. _Nisha._ He’d think it beautiful if she didn’t seem so ready to watch him die in front of her. Or watch him die between her hands. He wasn’t really sure which one she’d prefer, but he was content to never find out if he could keep himself from that.  
   
The male two-tail knelt down before him, and Rhys could feel himself balk at that. Why did his tail bend like that? It wasn’t natural and had to be absolutely excruciating. His scarred face lifted with a grin, some sort of mirth behind his eyes that made him think of Yvette when she saw a bowl full of oysters, and his gaze zeroed in on Rhys’ lost eye. _The pearl_. The figure's smile grew even wider, teeth glinting in the unbearable light. Rhys was sure his mouth would rip if he continued smiling like that. He stared for a long, long moment, Rhys shriveling beneath his gaze only a bit, trying to keep a facade of bravery, before finally speaking. He spoke in that garbled way Rhys had heard when first before them, the words coming more from his insides, from his gut and throat. Could he not speak from the mind? “Welcome aboard the Hyperion, kiddo. We’re gonna have so much _fun_.”

**Author's Note:**

> Annndddd we’re off! I’m super excited for this AU! If you’d like an image of Rhys, Harpaax drew [this](http://harpaax.tumblr.com/post/140568238917/okay-so-i-havent-drawn-mermaids-in-ages-so-i) PHENOMENAL piece of him! She’s also done A TON more stuff for this AU, so please check her out! Qvoro drew an AMAZING piece inspired by this AU as well and you can check it out [here](http://qvoro.tumblr.com/post/142329529419/have-this-mer-rhys-inspired-by-ofstrangeshadowss)! Hyperionhive is ANOTHER person who drew an absolutely wonderful Rhys for this AU and you can see that [here!](http://hyperionhive.tumblr.com/post/145404897962/i-drew-mermaidrhys-for-ofstrangeshadows-rhack) Please go and love on all of them! Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed! If you did, please leave a comment, kudos, or even share this with your friends! If you'd like to see a bit more about this AU (or follow me) and the works it has inspired, check out my [tag](http://ofstrangeshadows.tumblr.com/tagged/rhack+mermaid+au+thingy) for it! Have a great day! :)


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